If you avoided dairy, and your EBF baby turned out to have a dairy allergy...

[Anticyclone]

... How long did it take from you stopping all dairy to their symptoms clearing up?

DS has a red rash on cheeks the and doctor told my breastfeeding DW to stop dairy as it looked like a dairy intolerance rash.

After 1 week we went back and of course it just so happened that his cheeks were improved that day, so the doc thought she was right. But now almost 3 weeks later his cheeks are still quite red and raw and nothing much has changed.

If he had a dairy intolerance surely we would have seen a solid improvement by now?

I was told 6 weeks and that is roughly how long it took. It still flared up on and off before then but finally went after 6 weeks

It might not be only dairy. Dairy intolerance often correlates with others, including soy which is a common replacement for dairy!

You'd think they could do some kind of skin patch test, save all the guesswork :(

It took more than a month for us. I went back to small quantities of the less contentious dairy products - butter, cheese rather than fresh milk - when he was an older toddler feeding less frequently and he was fine - he is 6 now and tolerates dairy well, so it may have been something else, though I think kids can grow out of it.

6 weeks!

Thanks, and yes we are aware of the potential soya allergy - That's what we'll be trying next!

I saw an improvement within 3 weeks but yes 6ish is about right. For us it had to be a STRICT elimination of dairy and soy even the slightest amount would cause a reaction

It is a pain in the arse. My condolences. How old is baby?

Thanks, the baby is 5 months.

Why on earth does the doc think it's a dairy allergy? Kids get rashes on their faces for all sorts of reasons and dairy allergies normally don't affect bfed babies (except in extremely sensitive babies). If your baby is allergic to dairy you would expect other symptoms too. Have you tried emollients etc? My DD had a horrible rash on heir face caused by a combination of drool and cold weather, it cleared up with a really thick cream.

I can take a really long time for the skin situation to improve, so she could be right.
But being allergic to dairy is completely different to being intolerant and there would be other signs there too.
Have a look on the cows milk protein allergy website and it explains the differences and what to watch for. Often there are more digestive symptoms alongside it not just a rash. If he has those too you may notice a difference there?

Hmm, we're totally confused now. Some people look at it and say "definitely eczema", it could be the cold weather and warm radiators drying him out. One doc says cows milk protein allergy, and a friend of a friend doc doing diagnosis by email says eczema!

We've got a paediatrician appt next month, so I guess they can tell us more.

How strict are you being about it? I have lactose intolerance and can be set off by things I would never have though have lactose in them, including medication.

All the small kids I know with dairy intolerances react to soy as well - I know three. All bf incidentally - it's not that uncommon these days.

It is often secondary to something else though. Whatever food intolerance someone may have will cause damage to the lining of the gut, and secondary dairy intolerance often follows that. The paed will definitely explain that though!

I just had to do a milk and soy exclusion with my 4 year old. We were told not to expect to see any difference before at least 2 weeks and we needed to do a very thorough and complete exclusion of both together, at the same time, for a minimum of 6 weeks. (In our case, made no flippin' difference, back to the drawing board!)